Run is Over

Just about all the salmon have disappeared from the creek. I'd say the run is over. I was extremely blessed to get this one silver. He was likely the only one in the fishing hole. I didn't see him down at the bottom, but he came up and bit on a piece of pink yarn tied to a hook. I haven't had any luck with the eggs I cured, instead they seem to bite easier on the yarn since it looks like eggs but is brighter in the murky water. He was 28 inches and over 8.5 lbs. Big enough to get 8 meal-sized fillets vacuumed sealed and in the freezer for winter. His color and meat were good, so I'll turn a couple of the fillets into sushi grade once it gets down below -15 deg here in December. Moose season is underway, and we're also starting to plan our trip up to the North Slope for a caribou bow hunt, and maybe a fall black bear hunt down south of the Kenai.

Obligatory Fish Pictures

Sunday's catch. Tired of fish pictures yet? Me neither!

Almost time to wash my lucky fish shirt and lucky fish hat...they're starting to take on a life of their own! Taking tomorrow off to do some more fishing before the run ends.

Big Silver

Today was the peak tide of the month, and the creek was higher than I've ever seen it. The trail that I usually walk along the creek on was under about 4 feet of water. After a couple of hours trying to find some fish, I finally found a group up river a little ways. Ended up taking two silvers, the second one was the big one you see above. He was a 26 inch fish, but surprisingly only weighed around 7 lbs. I've caught several smaller that weighed over 9 lbs - so he had lost some weight swimming up stream. He had the most character on his jaws that I've seen on any silver yet, and had started to "ripen" - when their skin turns a shade of red, but not too bad. Another sunny warm day, and another couple of salmon in the freezer.

First Days of School

Landon was off to the first grade this year. We feel very old sending him off. In the afternoons the boys come home and head out to play with Dino and to shoot their BB gun. It won't be long before it is too cold to enjoy these activities~

Sunday's Catch

Up early, and down on the creek at 6am. Landed the silver in the first picture one minute later. Fished for another 2 hours and only brought in one red before coming home to get ready for Church. There's not a large number of silvers, but there's still a few. Probably only a couple weeks left of fishing before the run dies off. Then it's hunting season! Landon wanted a picture of Dino on the blog - so here he is, sound asleep. He's gained over 5 pounds in the last week or two!

Silver Saturday

Took about an hour this morning to haul in two silvers and a red. Took the red because Landon wanted some pictures of a deep red/green headed salmon - very pretty fish, but not good eating. Threw the red right on the grill this morning and the two silvers are reserved for sushi this winter. The big male silver in the second pic sure had a "king" look to it when I first saw it, but the black mouth and white gums definately confirmed it as a silver. Dino wanted his picture with the fish too.

Could Dino be eagle food?

After church today we put Dino out on the back porch for a while. We caught him causing mischief and Layne went out to get him. As I glanced out the back window I happened to see an immature bald eagle hanging out just off the bluff. Pappy reports that this same eagle was sitting in the yard this morning by the boy's slide. I wish I could've gotten those pictures! There is some debate as to whether this is a golden eagle or an immature bald, based on the proximity to the nest and the white patterns on the underside of the wings I am sticking with immature bald (until someone with corrects me;)

Fishing Report

The red run has really slowed down, and the number of silvers running are not enough to make up the difference. So it took several hours Saturday to haul in two decent sized reds, and all the silvers that bit fought their way off. Sunday morning produced one good sized silver and that was it. Dino hasn't been left out of the fishing...he walked down to the creek for a while with Pappy yesterday, and as you can see in the pictures, while I clean fish he carrys around his own red salmon chew toy.

New Dino Pics

Meet Dino-Dog

Well, it's a long story starting with an announcement at church this morning about a member who needed to give three more puppies away. Landon asked me if he could have one, I said "ask your mother", so he asked Jolene, and she said "ask your father", so naturally that meant yes. After arguing with us, he said "let's just go see them", knowing full well that you can't go see a puppy without taking one home (a trick I used many times growing up!). Even though mom and dad tried to convince him to get the one that looked like a black lab, Landon chose Dino. After spending the last few weeks playing video games for hours each day, Landon spent ALL day out with Dino (the name Landon gave him - named after a dinosaur T-shirt that said "Dino-Might"). So we have a new addition to the family. Say hello to Dino.

EDIT: Pappy and Grammy have arrived!! They pulled in tonight. No pictures yet, but we'll post more later. They made it safe and sound.

The Reds are Running, The Reds Are Running....

Saturday morning at 0 dark thirty I wake up to the sound of Layne on the back porch. I knew he hadn't gotten up that long ago and I was trying to figure out whether he was just leaving or returning. It turns out that he was returning and had the best fishing trip since we've been here. He highly encouraged Landon and I to join him at the creek so that we could catch our limit. After dressing and dragging two sleepy boys to the creek we discovered that the run was over. We had to return to the house because I had to meet with a client. As soon as I returned home, Layne was ready to head back down, but we had to wait until Grayson awoke from his nap. Poor little guy was woken up for the second time only to be stashed in a back pack while Landon and I fished. We did pretty well and Landon was real excited by the number of fish that we could see and scored himself a couple of salmon. Salmon fishing is much more an active sport than I remember fishing growing up. I remember throwing the line in the water and picking dandelions until something cool happenned. Red salmon fishing is more like, continually enticing a fish to take a moving line in a fast current. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.....

The Run is On

Got up early this morning and headed down to the creek. Started fishing at the old bridge
site at 0615 and had my limit of Reds (Sockeye Salmon) thirty minutes later. They were stacked up nicely there for a little while. Even was able to throw 2 back for being smaller than I wanted. Came back, gutted and filet'd the fish and took Jolene and the boys back down at 0800. Jolene caught her first salmon and got it to the bank, but her net man (me) messed up and accidently let it go when I tried to pull it up - so no pictures. Landon was too concerned about the bugs to make a real effort with the fishing pole. Went back down at 1200 with some friends from church, but it was dead silent and not many fish still hanging around. Sometimes the fishing is hot, sometimes not. Hit and miss. Had a great time early this morning though, the best salmon fishing I've had in Alaska so far. Will hopefully be even better when the silvers arrive. Weather is too hot for me though - in the 70's today. I prefer the 60's I think for a high temp, but it made for a beautiful day.